The witching hour
by Pampermousse
Summary: Quinn and Fara have a short late night conversation after the events of E7 season 3
1. Chapter 1

Quinn goes to the office, not wanting to go back home just yet. He thinks about Carrie, and the look of confusion on her face when he wondered whether it was all worth it anymore. She hadn't ever questioned it, and that blind belief scares him and he finds himself for the first time in a long time judging her. But maybe it just means she was made for this in a way he wasn't. And for so long he had thought it was the other way around.

When he gets to the office he sees Fara in one of the conference rooms, with a stack of papers in front of her, head bent low. He thinks about just leaving her to it, but curiosity gets the better of him.

"Working late?"

She looks up startled but recovers quickly.

"I just wanted to go through everything with Jevadi one last time."

He had noticed her frustration earlier in the day with the route they were taking.

"You think we should have tried him here?" He asks taking a seat opposite him. She seems surprised that he is staying but merely shrugs her shoulders.

"It doesn't really matter what I think."

"Not really, but I'm interested."

"Okay." She seems to steal herself to launch into something but instead says quietly with some weariness. "I think a day in court is too kind for him. We are being too kind to him."

He is annoyed that she has held back what she really thinks and tries to provoke her, "I didn't realise you were so patriotic."

She is really looking at him now and he sees her eyes are jet black.

"Why is that? Because I wear this?" She fingers the material of her headscarf and he sees a strand of black hair poke out from the top. "And that doesn't make me as American as you? But you are right, I am patriotic. I am patriotic to this country which is now mine, and to Iran, the country of my family. And because of that I want to see scum like Jevadi pay for the crimes he has committed in both nations."

He eyes her impassively and he sees she regrets saying too much.

"I don't understand how this works. I guess I'm naïve." But she holds his gaze and the almost apologetic words don't match her straight posture and clenched fist.

"Yeah, well. I don't understand it that much anymore either."

She half-smiles at his admission and he can see her relax a little.

"Was everything ok with the ex-wife, the police, I heard you had to confess…"

"It was fine. More than fine."

She is looking at him curiously now and he turns away and gets up to leave.

"Well. Good night."

"Good night Quinn."


	2. Chapter 2

They are sitting in the office, listening in on surveillance at the Bennett offices. But at the moment, it is just silence.

"So I heard you shot Carrie."

He doesn't say anything and Fara feels it was the wrong thing to say, they don't know each other well enough.

"Shit happens."

She laughs because it is such an understatement for what they are doing and he releases a quick smile.

"So you have family back in Iran?"

"Yes, some of my father's brothers are still there." She hesitates, "he didn't want me to take the job, he's worried about their safety."

"You think he made you?"

Fara knows the 'he' refers to Jevadi and of course she has thought about whether he managed to find out her identity.

"I hope not. I feel guilty enough as it is."

Quinn continues to eye her in that impassive way he has. He is flicking a pencil in between his hand, back and forth, back and forth.

She doesn't know why she continues talking, "Sometimes I just want to think about myself, go out and have fun and not worry about all of this."

"What's your idea of fun?"

She can tell he thinks its wildly different to his, "meet some friends, go for a drink, go on a date. I don't know. Normal stuff."

He raises his eyebrows, " You drink?"

"Occasionally." She fingers her headscarf. "People have a lot of pre-conceptions about what someone wearing this should be doing."

"So why are you wearing that then? If not for religious reasons?"

She wonders how much she should share. "I started wearing it about 10 years ago, when I was in college."

"After 9/11." He says.

"Yes. After that. I was uncomfortable with the anti-muslim stuff happening. I felt I needed to assert my identity. I don't know. It was kind of a political decision. I didn't want to hide who I was. But this is not 100% who I am either." She shakes her head, "I'm probably not making much sense to you."

"No, I get it."

They are interrupted a noise on the computer coming from the listening device. Fara concentrates trying to pick up what is being said, but the connection is bad.

"Fuck. Get Virgil on the phone." Quinn tells her, and the moment is gone.

When she gets back to the conference room, Quinn tosses her phone at her.

"Someone is desperately trying to reach you."

She looks down and sees six missed calls from her father. She also sees a text from his carer saying that her father wants to talk to her but it is nothing important and she has it under control. Her fingers hover over the phone, but in the end she puts it down.

"It's late. You should call it a night. Especially if you have someone waiting for you."

"I have a job to do, same as you." She snaps, not liking what he said, even though she knows he is being kind.

He holds his hands up in surrender and gets back to the computer.

Carrie and Saul come in an hour later and they go over what they have. She senses tension between all three of them. Quinn spends a lot of time looking at Carrie and she ignores him. When they leave it is just her and Quinn.

"Do you like her?" she asks before she can stop herself. She is mortified and it must show in her face.

"Don't you?" he answers, neutralising the question.

"I don't really know her. She seems intense."

"Yeah well. But she's damn good at her job. Most of the time." He leaves it at that but her original question is still unanswered and they both know it. Her phone rings again and she answers it. It's her father, he's upset and she can't make out what he is saying. At the same time that she begins to understand she sees Saul coming towards the room. He takes the phone away from her and tells her that her uncle has been taken prisoner in Iran and that her father is going to be taken somewhere safe.

"You can stay here tonight. It's the safest place. Although I don't believe you are in any danger."

Fara's head is spinning but she tries to remain calm and professional.

"What is being done about my uncle?"

"We are trying to get him out. I don't know what Jevadi is playing at but we have to give him the benefit of the doubt at this stage."

She looks at him in horror. "If anything happens to my family."

"It won't. I promise you." But she doesn't believe him.

She looks at Quinn who is staring at Saul.

"There is a fold-out bed somewhere around here, you can stay there. Someone will go and get some clothes for you." Saul says

Sitting on the bed later in what looks like a glorified broom cupboard, Fara wishes she could speak to her father. It was not just her sense of duty that made her take this job, but it was vanity and wanting to prove something as well. It was the same impulse that made her wear the headscarf after never putting one on before in America. Her father had been dismayed when she did it. He had wanted her to fit in, not stand out. He had spent his time in America trying to blend in and not drawing attention to himself. Brushing off every racist remark and keeping his head down. He couldn't understand her not wanting to live like that. She didn't want to hide or turn the other cheek. She remembers sitting on a train one day, a year after 9/11, and a lady opposite wearing a headscarf. The woman next to her looked at the poor woman with a mixture of confusion and anger, and when she got off the train, turned to Fara and said, "She shouldn't be allowed, not now." Fara had felt helpless in her anger and frustration and that night had put on a headscarf, in defiance of people's expectations of her. It was this same defiance that made her apply for the job at the CIA. She feels foolish to think she thought she could change anything.

Quinn waits for Carrie to sort through her closet upstairs. He is sitting no her sofa, marvelling at how tidy everything is. He wouldn't have figured that of Carrie. She comes into the room carrying a bag of clothes.

"Here's some stuff. I even managed to dig out a headscarf."

"Thanks. What do you think is going on?"

"Best case scenario, Jevadi had to do something to prove he's still on side with the Iranians, worst-case scenario is that he's turned back."

"I know all that. But what do you think?"

She shrugs and seems impatient and distracted. "I don't know. Fara shouldn't have been allowed to know about turning Jevadi. It was too dangerous?"

Quinn wants to ask for whom? The mission or Fara's family but he thinks he already knows the answer. He gets up to leave instead.

"I'll see you tomorrow Carrie." But she doesn't answer.


End file.
